Friday, 27 April 2018

Scale Models Expo Wellington

I was invited by Scale Models Wellington (IPMS) to put on a Wargame Demo. This was via my Gaming mate Tyrone who is a member of the club. We decided to go with a Vietnam Game rather than the ANZAC theme we originally planned (as we had not painted enough for that).

I wanted to use my Convoy Vehicles as I had been playing around with a scenario in my head for about a year and have never used the vehicles. I decided to use Bolt Action as it should be simpler than Charlie don't Surf to pick up on the day as we had not done any play-testing.

The idea was that a Convoy of Trucks escorted by a V100 and two Gun trucks were to cross a river. The result of the game depended on how many supply trucks were driven off the table verses how many the VC destroyed. There being two M34's and two low loading Trucks (Mack's). The Convoy Commander rode in a Mutt. The VC were to set up no closer than 12" away from the US. The Convoy was moved 12"+1D6 when the first green dice was pulled out.

I first took the US and managed two moves to just exit the Bridge and all Hell let loose. The Convoy stalled with heavy losses. Round one to the VC. Seems that I had underestimated the fire power of the VC who had; three RPG stands, two MMG's, one mortar, one section of Infantry and a Commander. I also felt that I had made a mistake letting the VC set up so close. We had another round this time with Tyrone taking the US and coming from the other direction. Much the same thing happened with the VC just sitting and waiting for the Trucks to arrive and then had a Turkey shoot. Round two to the VC.

Saturday Night I had a rethink about the scenario and decided that I needed to bring more Fire Power for the US. So I brought out my ACAV's (which I had never used). I had also found my box of Huts and Civilians which I had forgotten that day. I also decided that the VC would set up no closer than 12" to the road. The extra buildings helped to make the terrain look a bit denser. The result for the US was better with them killing most of the VC, but the cost to them was still too high with the convoy stalling on the bridge again. At least this Time I managed to get all the Convoy on the table.

If I was going to run this again I would have the ACAV's run ahead of the Convoy and set up at both ends of the Bridge before the Convoy attempted to come on. I also think a larger table would have helped as the VC would have had to spread out more. We got quite a bit of attention from the Public, more than I would normally get at a Wargames event. Most people did not realise that we were having a Wargame and seemed more interested in how I made the trees. I also was worried about all the little children waving their arms over the table pointing at things but no damage was done other than by packing/unpacking items.

All I bought at the show was some 1/48th Tamiya Kits; Elefant, Achilles, 7ton Armoured Car and a rechargeable desk lamp.